Covid-19: Call for easing restrictions in NI addiction centres

Covid-19 rules should be more lenient for addiction treatment centres, says Tommy Canning

Easing Covid-19 rules in Northern Ireland addiction centres would allow them to operate at a greater capacity, says the head of one treatment unit.

Tommy Canning, who works at Northlands in Londonderry, said demand for residential treatment was on the rise.

The centre usually has eight beds for inpatients but because of Covid-19 restrictions only five beds are available at any one time.

"There are people out there not able to access services," Mr Canning said.

Stormont's Department of Health said it regularly looks to mitigate the impact of Covid restrictions on services.

Upon reopening in May 2020 after the first coronavirus lockdown, Northlands had long waiting lists for those wishing to access residential treatment.

Funding provisions for a new addiction centre in Derry were outlined in the New Decade, New Approach deal, which led to the restoration of devolution at Stormont in early 2020.

Previously, Mr Canning said the pandemic had shown a new, bigger addiction centre in the city was needed.

'The need hasn't gone down'

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle this week, he said that Northlands was operating at reduced capacity under the Covid-19 guidelines but demand for services in the north-west was on the increase.

"There is room here for eight beds but we were only allowed to use four up until very recently - we have now increased that to five," he said.

"That is a 40% reduction in the amount of people that we can offer treatment to.

Northlands is an independent treatment centre that helps people with addiction problems

"In 2018 we had 64 people here for treatment and in 2021 so far we have had 29 people and we are just running into September - the need hasn't gone down."

Mr Canning said he believed treatment centres in Northern Ireland should be able to operate under relaxed restrictions.

"There could be some leniency and relaxation on things like social distancing or creating a bubble with people tested at regular intervals whilst they're in treatment," he said.

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"The difficulty becomes with the movement of staff coming in and out of the centre because we don't live here.

"It's not straightforward but if there were ways around this to allow us to provide residential treatment for eight people at a time again and allowed us to see more people face-to-face then we would welcome that."

In a statement the Department of Health said: "All such restrictions and guidance have been introduced to safeguard staff, users of the services and the wider public."

A new Northern Ireland wide substance abuse strategy is to be launched soon that will "ensure that demographic trends in increasing demand and complexity, current and future resources, gaps, service pressures and workforce issues will be addressed," it added.

If you have been affected by addiction help and support is available through the BBC Action Line.